John's Blog: SEO, Music, Photography & More

This past weekend, I helped my girlfriend Lauren make 2 cakes for an event that her friend was organizing. The event was to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the signing of the California Desert Protection Act. Her friend Lesley organized the event which was to include a cake cutting... Read more →

My friends Andy and Kira got engaged recently, and they asked me to shoot their engagement photos. They did some location scouting and agreed upon Cheeseboro Canyon in Agoura Hills. We'd be shooting in a beautiful meadow full of yellow flowers... Read more →

I completed my first full marathon (the Honolulu Marathon) in December of 2013. It was an incredible experience, and I knew that I’d run another marathon at some point... But I wasn’t planning on doing another one right away. I ended up signing up for the 2014 LA Marathon, which would put me at two full marathons in 3 months! Read more →

Life can get pretty hectic sometimes. Many people seem to gravitate towards the ocean when they want to relax. Perhaps it's because I live by the beach, but I find the desert to be much more relaxing. When I think of "the desert", I think of Joshua Tree. Things just seem to move at a different pace out there... Read more →

Never in my life did I dream that I’d run a full marathon. It’s not that I didn’t think I could do it – I just didn’t have the desire. Half marathons are good enough, right? Who in their right mind wants to pay to run 26.2 miles? While planning a December trip to Hawaii last year, I saw that we’d be there during the Honolulu Marathon, which took place just days after my 30th birthday... Read more →

2013 has been an amazing year packed full of exciting new experiences and personal growth. In all my years of blogging, I don't recall ever sitting down to reflect on the year and put together a list of "highlights". I have a few moments to do that now before my friends and I head to New York to ring in 2014. Here are the things that I'm happy about from the past year... Read more →

When I learned that my girlfriend's mother was planning on celebrating her birthday by running in the Honolulu Marathon, I decided that I wanted in on the action. I assumed that there was a Honolulu half marathon that I could sign up for, so I committed to doing that... And then I found out that the "Honolulu Half Marathon" doesn't exist. My only option at that point was to suck it up and sign up for the full 26.2 miler... Read more →

Next Sunday, I'll be running my first full marathon. I've done 5Ks, 10Ks, and a half marathon, but never a full. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't slightly intimidated by the prospect of running 26.2 miles. I've also never been to Hawaii, and the marathon is in Honolulu, so that's pretty cool. It's also the day after my 30th birthday. I've spent the past few months training and my playlist has evolved... Read more →

My Dad and I recently spent a week riding along the C&O Canal and GAP Trails. 330 miles, from Arlington, VA to Pittsburgh, PA. This was an amazing trip, and I took a ton of photos along the way. Here are some of my favorites. Read more →

I've lived in Southern California for almost 4 years now, and up until August I had never set foot on Catalina Island. There's really no excuse for that.
We decided to make a trip to the island to celebrate a friend's birthday. We caught a very early boat ride from San Pedro and landed in Avalon before breakfast. Read more →